Goodbye Lucian Freud

One of my favorite artists Lucian Freud died yesterday – aged 88.   Freud, grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and brother to comedian Clement was born in Berlin 1922, moved to Brittain 1933 and became a British subject in 1939 .  His paintings have two distinct styles, the earlier ones have a more smoother surface, created with

Facing the Paint

Face painting has been around for thousands and thousands of years.  It has been used as camouflage, used in battle to frighten the opposition, sports and used at funfairs and circus’ and religious ritual and spiritual purposes.  Indeed, the’greasepaint’, the ‘slap’ and the ‘face’ still goes on (and on our faces).  In the 1960’s ‘hippies’, the ‘flower children’ used to

A life in Motion – Muybridge

  Francis Bacon was a great fan of the pioneer film photographer Eadward Muybridge  b. 1883 – 1904 (strange way of spelling Edward I know, but I believe this is the original way of spelling his name in Anglo Saxon)  Muybridge is famous for his study of motion in film.    Though born in Surry England,

Happy Birthday Velázquez!

Today is the birthday of  Baroque Spanish Court Painter Diego Velázquez(1599 -1660).  Velázquez was a painter to Philip IV, painting all the Royal family as well as portraits of  notables and historical scenes of significance.  Many impressionist painters and realist artists who were to come after him, were very much influenced by this artist.  He was much

Happy 10th Birthday Tate Modern!

The month of May is nearly over and I cannot let it pass without wishing Tate Modern a Happy 10th Birthday.  I have been to the Tate Modern many times and seen quite a few exhibitions.  The Tate Modern galleries are built  in the space of Bankside Power station which closed in 1981 and the building

‘Books, books, books, – so many but never too many’

My reading is coming along great, already on page 110 of my Flashback book challenge.  As you probably know, I am tracking my findings on my other blog ‘Bookstains’.  however my reading is overtaking my writing!  Just to whet my appetite further I have found some other books which I wouldn’t mind re -reading ‘Diary of

Reflections: Hibernating, Twittering and Art

I’ve usually wrote and scheduled my blog by this time.  Where has the day gone?  Trying to do too many things at once makes the day short.  The days are short enough with these long nights.  I wonder what our ancestors made of it?  I just want to hibernate when it gets dark and cold, squirrels

Spring cleaning this blog (well, thinking about it anyway)

A quick one today, as I have to go to work soon (whilst I still have a job to go to!).  I have quite a lot of stuff to be getting on with regarding this blog: it could do with a Spring clean!  I might change the format also because I have been  having trouble with